Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/60

 Rh was compelled to labor hard for the support of the family, only attending school in the log schoolhouse of the period during the winter months. Later he attended a term or two at Cane Run Academy, the principal institution of learning in his native county. Here he evinced considerable ability, particularly in mathematics, in which he excelled over his classmates. At the age of nine teen he was forced by poverty to leave school and engage as a clerk in a dry goods store at Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Ky.; but here he con tinued to apply himself closely to his studies, and in his twentieth year borrowed some elementary books and began the study of law. He stud ied, and taught school for a support for three years, contriving by the strictest economy to save in that time money enough to attend the Law Department of Transylvania University, being a member of the Class of 1836- 183 7. Among his classmates were Beriah McGoffin, afterward governor of Kentucky; Richard Yates, afterward governor of Illinois; Hon. Otis Singleton of Mis sissippi, and Judge Samuel H. Woodson of Mis souri. At the close of his term he was licensed to practice law, and in the spring of 1839 settled at Richmond, Mo., and began his wonderful career as- lawyer and judge, practising his profession in all the counties of the then large Fifth Circuit, which comprised nearly all the west quarter of the State. He travelled over this circuit on horse back, from county seat to county seat, for years, in the companionship of Gen. A. W. Doniphan, Lewis and Amos Rees, Hon. D. R. Atchison, Judge William T. Wood, Judge James H. Birch, Gov. Willard P. Hall, Gov. Austin A. King, and the late Chief-Justices Henry M. Vories and Rob ert D. Ray, probably the most able and brilliant bar ever at one time in any circuit of this country. He was counted the peer of any of them at the bar, and superior to them all as a trial judge. He survived them all, — Judge Ray's demise having only preceded his a few weeks. In the early part of 1841 Mr. Dunn returned to his old home in Jessamine County, Ky., and was married to the sweetheart of his boyhood, Miss Sarah Martha Henderson, who was a loving companion to him nearly half a century, and now survives him and all their children, — five being born to them, — all of whom died some years before the husband and father. She was a daughter of Bennett Henderson, and a grand

45

daughter of Col. Joseph Crockett, a Revolutionary officer. Judge Dunn's official career began in the spring of 1841, when he was appointed Circuit Attorney of his circuit to fill a vacancy, and in 1844 was elected to the office for a full term without oppo sition, holding it until the fall of 1848, — seven years in all. During these years he was not only an efficient and vigorous prosecutor of all the criminal cases in his circuit, but skillfully attended to a very large civil practice as well. Jan. 1, 1849, he was elevated to the Circuit Bench of the Fifth Circuit by appointment, to succeed the Hon. Austin A. King, who resigned the office to take his seat as governor of Missouri. He was elected Judge of the same circuit, in 1851, for a term of six years, and was re-elected in 1857; in 186 1 he retired from office, declining to take the test-oath required by the Drake Constitution. In 1863 the people again elected him Judge of the Circuit; but he was ousted in 1865, along with the other officers of the State, by the vacating ordi nance of the Constitution. He then engaged in the practice of law, and followed it with marked success until 1874, when he was again elected Judge of -the Fifth Circuit, and by re-election held the office continuously until Jan. 1, 1887, when he surrendered it to his able successor, Judge James M. Sandusky, the present incum bent, — ill health having caused Judge Dunn to peremptorily refuse a re-election in 1886. He possessed a singular hold upon the affections of the people, and was never defeated in a popular election; he could have reached the Supreme Bench of the State had he aspired to it, but he always declined to allow his name to be used in that connection, being content to rest his fame as a lawyer and judge upon his briefs and affirmed decisions, which are numerous in the reports of our Supreme Court from the ninth to the ninetyninth volume inclusive, and extend over nearly fifty years of the legal history of the State. Judge Dunn's decisions have met with fewer reversals at the hands of the Appellate Courts than any judge in the State, although he held the office of Circuit Judge almost thirty years, and disposed of an immense volume of business in his ' large circuit. He, when at the bar, was never counted an orator; but he argued to a court or jury in a frank yet logical and forcible manner that always carried with it the conviction that he